Thursday, 29 November 2012

While
perusing the bookstore this weekend, I noticed that Orbit has released a new
edition of David Brin’s The Postman. Since I have been meaning to read the book for years, I figured this was
a good excuse to pick it up.

While I
enjoyed the book, it fell far short of the classic for which I was hoping. The first half of the book is a fun, tense
story of survival, discovery, and the dawning of hope for new future, but the
second half bogs down in a mish-mash of different themes and ideas that don’t completely
seem to fit together. I got the
impression that the author didn’t fully know where the book was going, and
perhaps forced it to its conclusion instead of letting it fully develop.

Still, I
read the book in less than three days, so it certainly pulled me along and kept
me entertained. In the rather thin
sub-genre of post-apocalyptic works, it probably stands as one of the better
ones, but in the larger world of science-fiction and fantasy, it certainly
doesn’t crack the top 100.

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

As predicted, the Thames burst its banks yesterday and has made a mess of some parts of Oxford. On my cycle to work, I passed by vast fields which had become shallow lakes and the river itself, which had wiped away the footpath next to it, and spread wide in all directions. At one point, the road was flooded away, although thankfully at a point that I could easily go around. Several other side roads had been closed because of flooding.

Thankfully, it looks as though the Thames has peaked. No more rain is expected in the next few days, either here or to the west from whence the Thames originates.

Sunday, 25 November 2012

I know it is only November, but I figured that with the millions of
letters you receive every year, it might be nice to get some early, so that you
can get a head-start on preparing for the ‘Big Night’.

The truth is, I’ve been pretty
good this year. Not perfect by any
means. I’m sure I could have been more
charitable, more helpful, and more understanding at times, but I’ve done my
best.

I know the global economy hasn’t
been great these last few years, and I suspect that even the power of Christmas
magic might be going through a rough-patch, so I have tried to keep my
Christmas requests small. Any of the
following items would make a great gift that I would be happy to receive come
Christmas day.

1. A really good Phillips head screwdriver.Standard size.Over the last few years, this has been my
most used tool, and the head on the poor quality one I have is starting to lose
shape. I’d love to have a proper one that will last me for a decade or two.

2. Midshipman’sHope by David Feintuch.I read this book
as a teenager and loved it.I think it
is time to give it another try and see if it has stood the test of time.

3. I’ve
been on a bit of a Jason and the Argonauts kick this year, and I’d love to do
some more exploration on the subject.To
that end, I’d love to receive The Orphic Argonautica by Jason Colavito and/or
The Jason Voyage by Tim Severin.

4. Some rechargeable energizer batteries.I already have the charger, but don’t seem to
have quite enough batteries. I could use a pack of AA and/or AAA.

5.Ungor Beastman Box Set. While I’m currently
trying to reduce the number of miniatures I own, especially unpainted ones, I’d
love got get a box of these guys to use as Satyrs to fight against my Greek
Heroes.

It's a small list, but hopefully there are a few items you might have in stock. If not, anything involving space ships will probably go down well. Looking forward to seeing you. Hope everything runs smooth this year.Sincerely,Mr. R. Troll

Saturday, 24 November 2012

- I've been playing around with the look of the Troll. I decided it was time to give it a slightly more 'Renaissancey' look. At the same time, I wanted to make it a little easier to read and increase the size of the main body column so that I could display pictures a bit larger. What do you think?

- I missed Miniature Friday, so here's a little shot of 'Sharky'. In my humble opinion, this figure is one of the best sculpts in Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings line. True, I think this little guy looks a little too cool to be 'Sharky', but instead, looks more like a classic depiction of Merlin. Either way, it's an amazing little figure and huge fun to paint.

- My last post, about sci-fi universes, has just gotten its 500th hit, making it the Troll's most popular blog. It generated a good bit of debate on a couple of forums, with people pointing out several universes that should probably be considered. There were two that really caught my interest: Perry Rhodan, a German sci-fi pulp/paperback series that is still running after 2,700 issues and Mobile Suite Gundam, a Japanese giant robot series has produced a huge slew of movies and television and is also still active.

It helped highlight how difficult it is to compare such things across cultures. As it turned out, the most controversial inclusion on my own list was Doctor Who. In Britain, Doctor Who is better known that Star Wars and Star Trek put together. In the US, it's probably on a par with Babylon 5.

- My post on the Space Battleship Yamato model has became a huge target for spam commentators. While I'm used to getting a spam comment every couple of weeks, this post has gotten about 8 in the last two weeks. I have no idea why this might be.

- The Thames has once again risen to the top of her banks. With more rain expected over the weekend, I suspect that at least some parts of Oxford will be underwater. Thankfully, we live on a hill.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Yesterday,
for no reason in particular, I began to think about the most successful
science-fiction universes in film and television. After a bit of internet research, I’ve come
up with my top 5.

Star Wars

Feature
Films: 6

Made-For-TV-Films:
3

Cartoons: 4

Droids (1 season, 13 episodes)

Ewoks (2 seasons, 26 episodes)

Star Wars: Clone Wars (2
seasons, 25 episodes)

The Clone Wars (5 seasons, 95
episodes, ongoing)

Although the
Star Wars universe is not that far ahead of some of its rivals in terms of
production, it is at least an order of magnitude above all of the others in
terms of recognisability and market penetration. Also, with its recent purchase
by Disney, its level of production is set to sky-rocket.

Star Trek

Feature
Films: 12

Television
Series: 5

Star Trek (3 seasons, 79
episodes)

The Next Generation (7 seasons,
178 episodes)

Deep Space Nine (7 seasons, 176
episodes)

Voyager (7 seasons, 172
episodes)

Enterprise (4 seasons, 98
episodes)

Cartoons: 1

Star Trek: The Animated Series
(2 seasons, 24 episodes)

With five
major television series, producing over 700 episodes, and an even dozen movies,
Star Trek is a clear second place. It is
also the most ‘high-brow’ science-fiction universe to make the list. While most of its competitors went down the
action/adventure route, Star Trek tended to explore larger ideas of social
mores, morality, and the human experience.
Although set for another major film release soon, the universe really
needs a new television show to carry it forward.

Doctor Who

Feature
Films: 2

Made-for-TV
Films: 1

Television
Series:

Doctor Who (33 seasons, 789
episodes, ongoing)

Torchwood (4 seasons, 41
episodes)

The Sarah Jane Adventures (5 seasons,
53 episodes)

K-9 (1 season, 26 episodes)

K-9 and Company (1 episode)

The Doctor
Who universe is the only entry in the top five produced outside of the United
States, which means it might not be as familiar to a lot of Americans, but this
is just one of its many unique features.
It is certainly the oldest of the Universes, having first aired in 1963,
three years before the first Star Trek.
It contains, by far, the longest running television show (even if you
separate out the modern incarnation of the show, the original ran for 26
seasons). It is also the only one of
the top 5 Universes currently producing a live-action television series.

Also, Doctor Who has permeated the culture of Britain far more than
even Star Wars has done in America. Included
amongst the Doctor Who episode count is 5 Christmas specials, but not included
are the numerous short specials that have been produced for charity events, nor
the numerous radio broadcasts, the audio plays, the stage plays, etc.

Star Gate

Feature
Films: 1

Made-for-DVD
Films: 2

Television
Series: 3

Stargate SG1 (10 seasons, 214
episodes)

Stargate Atlantis (5 seasons,
100 episodes)

Stargate Universe (2 seasons, 40
episodes)

Cartoons
Series: 1

Stargate Infinity (1 season, 26
episodes)

The ten
seasons of Stargate SG1 makes it the longest running, science-fiction
television show produced in North America.
However, as none of the shows in the series were originally broadcast on
a ‘mainstream’ channel, it never reached the level of profile of those above it
on the list. While its last series, Universe, was essentially a failure, this
science-fiction universe is still fresh enough, with a large enough fan base,
to make a new series a possibility.

Babylon 5

Made-for-TV
Films: 6

Television
Series: 2

Babylon 5 (5 seasons, 110
episodes)

Crusade (1 seasons, 13 episodes)

While I
doubt that too many people would argue that my first four universes belong in
the top 5, I’m sure my last would generate some debate. It is certainly true that Babylon 5 is
significantly less successful than any of those above it, and its position over
some of those below is more a matter of taste than quantifiable success. Still, Babylon 5 deserves a lot of credit for
its impact on science-fiction, being the first show to really attempt to tell
one, epic, tale over the entire length of its run. Unfortunately, television politics managed to
make a bit of a mess of it at the end.
Still, there was a time when Babylon 5 was the best science-fiction
going on television.

Unlike the others on the list,
it seems probably that Babylon 5 is essentially a ‘dead’ universe, with little
hope of there ever being any new films or television series.

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Many months ago, I bought a beautiful book. I bought it from a little shop in Folkestone
for £15, and, I admit, I bought it mainly because it was beautiful. That said, I always intended to read it, and
now I have done so.

The book in question is The Life of King Alfred by Dr.
Reinhold Pauli. It was published in
London in 1852 by Richard Bentley of New Burlington Street*. The book is bound in green leather, with gold
embossing on the cover, spine, back cover, and even the edges of the
cover. The page edges are inked in
strange swirling colours. It also has a ribbon, a sign of distinction among
books.

On the inside front cover there is a very intriguing book
plate, which I cannot fully understand.
It seems to say ‘Alfredo Puter, Harrouiensi Diligentiae Praemium
Advidicavit (handwritten name) Praeceptor (handwritten name) A. S.
MDCCCLIX'. Okay – my Latin isn’t the
best, and it isn’t helped by the font seeming to use the same character for
both ‘v’ and ‘u’, but, as near as I can tell this book was awarded to a
student, probably Alfredo Puter by his teacher in 1859. If someone with better Latin could make
confirm or correct me, I’d certainly be interested.

It’s also interesting to note that the symbol on the bookplate
is the same as the one embossed on the cover, which leads me to believe that
the book was originally sold unbound (as was common at the time) and that the
cover and binding was added by whomever purchased the book to use it as a
prize.

So what of the text? The text is written by a German
academic who studied in Oxford in the 1840s. He originally wrote the book in German, where I assume it was also
published, and then translated to book into the English. Most of the book is a rather straightforward
retelling of the life of King Alfred, and from what little knowledge I posses
on the subject, I think most of it is still pretty accurate (unfortunately,
there haven’t been any major finds in the last 150 years, that would
dramatically alter the known chronology of the period). I was delighted to find, that despite its
age, the text was generally easy to read and not overly academic.

There are a few peculiarities. The author does seem totally infatuated with
his subject, who takes our lack of knowledge of Alfred having any defects as defacto proof that he had no
defects. He is also delights in point out
that, as a Saxon, Alfred was basically German, which probably suited his original audience. However, my favourite quirk of the text is the occasional footnotes by
the editor, where he actually corrects the author on a point or two. Can you image that in a modern work? The editor butting in to say – actually he’s
wrong about that...

All in all, it is an interesting work contained in a
beautiful book, and I’m glad to be able to put it on my shelf.

* Richard Bentley, it turns out, was a rather famous
publisher of the time, and worked with a lot of the big name authors of the
period, including Charles Dickens, who he apparently couldn’t get along
with. The Life of King Alfred was
published during a period when Bentley was suffering a series of bad financial
reverses.

Thursday, 8 November 2012

I don’t make that many models. While I can happily spend countless hours
painting little metal miniatures, I have very limited patience when it comes to
gluing together and painting plastic model kits. However, I recently stumbled across HobbyLink Japan, and my love of spaceships won out! I placed an order for three spaceship kits,
which set me back about £20, including shipping from Japan!

I finished up work on the first of the models earlier this
week, and I’ve got to say, I’m pretty happy with the results. The ship is an Earth-defence battle cruiser
from the Space Battleship Yamato (Starblazers)series, and measures in at about nine inches. There is something about the combination of the
classic rocket ship body, with a World War II battleship ascetic which really
appeals to me. It is just so different from anything seen in Star Wars or Star Trek.

Being a cheap and inexpensive model, it wasn't too
complicated to put together. In all,
assembly took between three and four hours. I left off a couple of the smaller pieces, partly to make my life
easier, but also, to keep the ship from looking too bitty. It took me another three or four hours to
paint the model. I wanted a simple but striking paint job, and one that showed
off the hull paneling. I only used five colours painting the model and two of
those were black! (Flat Green, Ivory, Flat Black, Gloss Black, Grey).

The top two turrets are rotatable. The bottom one is not,
for some reason. The stand is pretty
ingenious. It’s a little ball mount that
allows the ship to be pointed at a wide degree of angles.

I am extremely pleased with how this model came out, which
is a somewhat rare experience. I think
it is best if I just bask in the glow of this success for awhile before picking
up the modelling glue again.

Monday, 5 November 2012

Just over
three months after I flipped over my handlebars and cracked my collar bone, I
got back on a bike. It was just a short-ride: about 2.5 miles down to the
science-park, around the duck pond a few times, and back home, but it felt
good.

I admit I had a few moments of
jitters, but they passed quickly, and were soon lost in the resistance of the
pedals and the rhythm of the wheels. I had hoped to get a few more short rides
in before making the long ride to work, but life and weather conspired against
it.

I spent
the first part of this evening getting my bike ready for the commute. Amazingly, the only part of my bike that
seems to have suffered any major damage in the crash was the bell, which lost
its hammer. I replaced that. I also fitted a new ‘Lezyne Mini Drive’ light. This
little sucker throws out some serious lumens and has to be recharged through my
computer.

So,
assuming it isn’t pouring down rain when I wake up tomorrow, I’ll be saddling
up the Ridgeback Meteor, and rolling on to work!

Saturday, 3 November 2012

A couple of years ago, I discovered Jack Campbell’s LostFleetseries, and it quickly became my favourite military space adventure
series of all time. By combining ideas
drawn from the Cold War, the Interstate system, Xenophon, and Arthurian legend,
Campbell created a retro-science-fiction universe where his protagonist, ‘Black
Jack’ Geary, could shine brightly by standing for classic values in the midst
of a century long war.

After six books, Campbell wrapped up the Lost Fleet series,
and, soon thereafter, launched two follow-up series: The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier, a direct
sequel to the first series, and The Lost Stars, which would take a look at some
of the characters who fought against ‘Black Jack’ Geary.

Earlier this month, Jack Campbell released the first of this
second follow-on series, The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight. I picked it up a couple of days after
release and had finished reading it less than four days later.

Essentially, it follows the story of two characters, a
politician and a soldier, who lead a rebellion against the ruling communist
government of their star system. It’s an
action-packed story that bumps along at a good pace, but suffers from two
problems compared to the Lost Fleet. First, despite his best efforts, Jack Campbell dosen’t seem completely
comfortable writing non-heroic characters. His protagonists are both members of the former Syndic (read: communist)
hierarchy, and although both have been sidelined for not completely following ‘the
system’, they are still very much products of that system. Most of their time is spent worrying about
when or if the other conspirator will stab them in the back. Unfortunately, since the reader quickly
realizes that neither is planning to do such a thing, reading about these
worries grows a bit tiresome. Still, this is a minor issue.

A slightly larger issue is the lack of a driving plot for
the book/series. The Lost Fleet had the
brilliant premise of a battered battle fleet trying to bluff and fight its way
home. Although this book has an
interesting starting point of the revolution, it is not clear how, or where,
the series could satisfactorily end.

Despite these problems, I still very much enjoyed the
book. Even when Campbell is not at the
top of his game, he has an easy writing style that draws the reader in and
keeps him entertained. While I’m glad
that Campbell’s next book is scheduled to be from the Lost Fleet: Beyond the
Frontier series, I will certainly pick up the next Lost Stars novel soon after
it is released.

Friday, 2 November 2012

When I was around ten or so, I stumbled upon a cartoon
called Starblazers. It was a Japanese import,
and came with all the strange animation quirks for which old school
japanimation is famous, but it also had, by far, the coolest space battles to
be found on television at the time. In
every episode, giant battleships and cruisers opened up on one other with laser
batteries and missile pods, while sleek fighters dodged in and out. I loved it!

For those not in the know, here is a quick summary. Evil aliens attack the earth, sweeping aside
our space defences, and bombard the planet with radiation bombs. The few human survivors are forced
underground, to endure their last miserable years before the radiation kills
them. But there is a glimmer of
hope. A message pod arrives from a
distant group of friendly aliens. They
claim to have the cure for earth’s radiation; unfortunately, the humans will
have to come pick it up. Included in the
pod are plans for a super space drive and weapon system that should get the
humans across the galaxy to pick up the cure. The problem is, humanity no longer has the construction capacity to
build a new space ship – SO (here is the great part) – they retrofit the hull
of the Super Battleship Yamato, that was sunk during World War II, with the new
drive and weapon system, and blast that sucker into outer space! Booyah!

Using the power of the new ‘Wave Motion Gun’, the Space
Battleship Yamato (called the Argo in Starblazers), shoots its way through the evil
alien blockade and sets off on a journey to the far side of the Milky Way. But they only have one year to save the
earth!

If like me, your favourite geek, remembers the cartoon
foundly, you might think about getting them a model of the Space Battleship
Yamato this Christmas. Thanks to the
wonders of the highly advanced Japanese modelling industry, there are several
choices available. However, unless your geek is a highly advanced modeller, might
I suggest this one: Space Battleship Yamato fromHobby Link Japan. It costs an incredibly reasonable $7
(although shipping from Japan will nearly double that), and is relatively
simple so that even casual modellers shouldn’t have too much trouble with it.

A few weeks ago, I made my first ever order from Hobby Link
Japan, but I’ll leave that story for another day.